There's no way I can justify, in my mind, blaming the author of the software. It's the implementer that is at fault.
In the case of virii: I don't believe there is anything inherently wrong with writing a virus. The author is not to blame until he unleashes it--deliberately or accidentally.
I have yet to find a good reason to hold an author responsible for how their software is used. It would be an evil thing if we could be prosecuted for the way someone may abuse software that we write. This could certainly have a chilling effect on free software.
I don't think any of us will be very happy if the people that can afford to release software are companies that have a full-time legal staff to fend off law suits brought on by misuse of software.
It's been several years since I checked up on T1 and Frame Relay prices. It was hard to get an exact number since Bell Atlantic apparently couldn't find anyone able to discuss the prices with a non-business client.
Eventually I was able to get pointers to pricing info from one of the comp.dcom.telecom.* newsgroups/lists. DSL seems to be MUCH cheaper than the prices that the RBOCs are charging their business customers at present.
So what happens when they make DSL available for hundreds of dollars less per month? Wouldn't they be cannibalizing a big portion of their data services business (income-wise at least.) How much does this factor into how long it will take them to roll out DSL or other consumer data services? Can the RBOCs insist that their business customers continue paying a couple of hundred dollars per month for a fractional T1 when an equivalent DSL technology is available to consumers for $50/month?
Obviously Gore is defending the Internet that he and Gates have been working so hard to create. (Please don't confuse this with the Internet everyone else has worked so hard to create.)
I've been following the Jabber project a little bit. Perhaps someone there might be able to incorporate some of the source into their project.
So far it seems to be just text messaging that they're working on, and no encryption. I've been waiting for them to do encrypted messaging. Encrypted voice would be great also.
I hate to reply to my own post, but I indicated sarcasm around the words "totally devestating" with pseudo-html--it showed up in the preview, but seems to have disappeared now.
This will have no effect on piracy overall. But I expect to read about a bunch of students losing their computer equipment, getting kicked out of school in some cases, and that kind of thing. In some cases they may not even be guilty.
It's not that I condone piracy. I just hate the fact that the BSA is probably going to come down hardest on the people doing the least damage and would have a bright future otherwise. But the BSA has to justify it's existence in one way or another if they want to continue siphoning their "share" from the technology boom.
If they bust kiddies that are just being kiddies, the punishment should fit the crime. A small fine, maybe some community service. Not hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Save that for the big bad pirates are totally devastating the software industry.
I've always liked VisualAge better than VS. The amount of coding I've done for Windows is very limited, but VisualAge (for C++, haven't really used VAJ yet) was a lot more intuitive. At least for me. At any rate, I'm happy there's a decent JDE for Linux now.
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PS> Please feel free to correct me if there are and decent java development environments for Linux that I'm not aware of.
I was thinking about the same thing. The idea feels kinda wierd...trying to picture Slashdot with a personals section. And, of course, if they did it there almost certainly would be an imbalance between the number of male and female participants.
On the positive side though, the people that I see on Slashdot tend to be a lot more interesting in general than those that I end up running into IRL. And lack of interest on my part is a big part of the reason I'm single. The other part is probably the signals I give off, such as "I'm really bored right now but I'm making an effort to pick you up anyway" when actually I'm thinking "I'd really like to get to know her better/Is there anything other than small-talk that she'd like to talk about."
I would say, offhand, that you've nailed the exact reason(s) why MS is in dire straits. You can only defend so many fronts at once; that's basic military strategy.
I've thought about this...why they would do it, that is. I think the idea (Microsoft's) has been that they would try to corner as many technology markets as possible. Certainly they knew they wouldn't win every battle, but they would be able to take over many and tie them to Windows, the center of their empire. Since geography isn't really an issue this could actually work. Except that their center (Windows) is beginning to rot.
Of course this leads to an interesting idea--if everything is tied to Windows and Windows dies out, where does that leave the rest of the empire? Well, at that point I think Microsoft will cease to be an empire and become just another big software company instead.
Artist description: Unplugged robots who've decided to use MP3 to spread their subversive, anti-technology, anti-boosterism.
I came across these guys on mp3.com a couple months ago and found nothing of value. It appears that they've decided to move to print media since web and audio wasn't selling.
They've added some new MP3's since the time I found them, and if they're anything like what I've already heard, then clicking the above link is just a waste of time anyway. Or maybe it's just me...I didn't get it.
It made a lot more sense back in '95 or '96 when I made the suggestion. Netscape worked pretty well for me in Linux up until Communicator 4 came out. It's been downhill from there.
I can't deny that these days Netscape would be a poor choice. And yes, of course if they had done it they would have wanted to make sure there was a copy of Netscape for Linux on the Linux disc--isn't that just common sense?
I e-mailed Nicholas Peterly years ago with the suggestion that Netscape distribute free copies of RedHat with their browser in order to combat Microsoft's decision to bundle IE with Windows.
He wrote back immediately saying he thought it was a great idea and he'd like to use it in his column...he never did though.
I still think it's a great idea for companies to bundle free copies of Linux with their products. Obviously not every product, but there are many that it wouldn't hurt to bundle a CD or two with.
Another scenario: What if you've used "Acmesoft sitebuilder" to build the site for Company A. Since you've signed this "IP non-compete" agreement, does that mean you can't use the skills with Acme Sitebuilder you've honed while building Company A's site to build more sites for other companies with Acme Sitebuilder?
This reminds me of one that I was forced to sign. Basically they told all the IT people they had to sign it. It was written (badly) by our legal department. It included clauses such as "employee may not at any time now or in the future use any software or hardware used by Company during period of employment without written consent of Company" and another saying we couldn't use any skills that we had learned working there. And, this was a "sign or resign" deal--I had been working there for over 2 years at the time.
One guy got upset and quit over it, the rest of us laughed at it and signed it anyway. So basically they pissed off one guy enough to make him leave and made themselves look incredibly stupid to the the IT department. If this were actually legally binding I wouldn't be able to ever use PC-DOS, Win 3.1, OS/2, Token Ring, or an AS/400 again--as if I would anyway! Of course I probably wouldn't be able to use the telephone either.
The sad thing is that they actually did have IP and trade secrets to protect. By trying to force employees into an overly broad non-compete agreement they ended up with no protection at all.
All in all it was a great place to work (I spent nearly five years there.) Just an annoying legal department and clueless upper level management. That's why I let them "force" me to sign and just laughed it off. Instead of just saying "No", I just said "Yes."
In Cryptomonicon the sultan of Kinakuta declared that they would not interfere with the transfer or storage of data. The idea was that that they would create a "data haven" where everything would be encrypted. They planned to use this data haven to provide information on protecting ourselves from holocausts. However they soon realized that most of their investors were pretty shady characters with a lot of money. In the process they discover a huge cache of gold and diamonds, etc. They realize that they can create their own currency (totally anonymous, digitally signed, electronic currency -- no paper trail of an sort on transactions transacted) and back up the currency with the discovered treasure.
Obviously this is a novelty thing--not exactly news (I saw this on the Daily Show several months ago.)
The unwritten but well known law is that whoever has the most powerful weapons/army owns the moon (assuming it's worth something to them.) Pay closer attention to history.:P
I can relate to this also--being from that type of school. As much money as possible went towards sports--especially football--and our football team sucked (IIRC they didn't win one game my senior year.)
My friends from other schools were using Apple II's, Mac's, and PS/2's yet our school was using TRS-80's and Commodore PET's. (We finally got some PS/2's my senior year--it was a real big deal that they finally put some money into computers.)
When our Spanish class wanted to go on a field trip the administration said they couldn't afford to pay for the bus driver (our Spanish teacher offered take us without pay so that part wasn't an issue.) So the class got together and decided we'd pay for it ourselves (it was just a trip to see Man of La Mancha at a local theatre in a nearby town so it would have been pretty cheap.) This time the administration came back and said that wouldn't be fair to students in other classes that couldn't afford to do the same--yet the sports teams were given all sorts of assistance with fundraisers. Finally we decided we'd arrange to do it without any help from the school. The next day our teacher came back and said "I'm sorry but I am not allowed to participate in this in any way. We are not allowed to discuss or arrange anything in this class."
One Ohio principal whose school is getting Mosaic-2000 told a newspaper that Mosaic's "immediate virtue would be in producing detailed documentation of its evaluation of a troubled student so that doubting parents could no longer challenge an administrator's judgement as too subjective."
Translation: "the immediate virtue will be that I won't be responsible anymore when the wrong decision is made. I can just say, hey look what the computer said."
How can a mediocre administrator turn something like that down? I'd like to point out by the way that I don't think this is a "test." It's based on data the teachers and adminstrators subjectively choose to enter or leave out of the database. Including information based on rumours. And believe me, playing politics/spreading rumours/character assassinations are a huge part of being in high school.
It really annoys me that this will lessen administrators' responsibilty to be objective by laying the "decision" on the computer--which can't be blamed for anything--even though the data being entered might be subjective anyway. I'm sure this software will be worth every penny for the peace of mind that this will buy them.
This software could be a useful tool if used by smart, open-minded, objective administrators that really care. But it seems to me it's more likely to be used by mediocre administrators to cover their asses. Now, consider the administration at your (or your children's) high school. Which category do they fall into? Objective or CYA?
I'm hoping someone can clarify something for me. If I understand correctly, the slot that Pentium II/III's go in is called Slot 1. Intel patented Slot 1 so that other companies could no longer make replacement processors. So AMD had to stick with the Socket370(?) form (which was the non-proprietary Pentium Pro socket.) Until they came out with the Athlon. AMD (or somebody) created the Slot A socket which is suprisingly(not!) similar to Slot 1 but not compatible. Main question: Is Slot A proprietary also? Or can other companies make processors for it other than AMD?
NOTE: The above is based on many guesses, assumptions, things I've read, and things I may have imagined reading. Please correct me or clarify (I'm sure there are errors.)
All very good, but one more that wasn't mentioned. And before I mention it I'm going to mention this: I am not making any judgement about anything, just pointing out something I've noticed.
Abortion: Abortion in the US is cheap, safe, legal, and discrete. It does not require parental consent. Unless you're someone that has had many young women confide in you, then you probably have no idea just how common the practice is--even in upper/middle-class America.
"...Randy hadn't the faintest idea what these people thought of him and what he had done, but he could sense right away that, essentially that was not the issue because even if they thought he had done something evil, the at least had a framework, a sort of procedure manual, for dealing with transgressions. To translate it into UNIX system administration terms (Randy's fundamental metaphor for just about everything), the post-modern, politically correct atheists were like people who had suddenly found themselves in charge of a big and unfathomably complex computer system (viz. society) with no documentation or instructions of any kind, and so whose only way to keep the thing running was to invent and enforce certain rules with a kind of neo-Puritanical rigor, because they were at a loss to deal with any deviations from what they saw as the norm. Whereas people who were wired into a church were like UNIX system administrators who, while they might not understand everything, at least had some documentation, some FAQs and How-tos and README files, providing some guidance on what to do when things got out of whack. They were, in other words, capable of displaying adaptability." -- Neal Stephenson, The Cryptomonicon pp585-586.
This is pretty much what I've noticed about my Christian friends (and family) as well!
I didn't read the article, so I don't know who's brilliant plan this was. This will just lead to more labeling of kids, and in the end more violence.
I think this software will be a "success" because it will very accurately determine who will become violent. (notice I used the word "determine" rather than "predict.") Pigeonholing kids into a "violent" category makes me think of the intelligent and creative people I've met that were pigeonholed into the "slow" category, and now they've completely managed to live up to those expectations.
Slashdot Mirror
There's no way I can justify, in my mind, blaming the author of the software. It's the implementer that is at fault.
In the case of virii: I don't believe there is anything inherently wrong with writing a virus. The author is not to blame until he unleashes it--deliberately or accidentally.
I have yet to find a good reason to hold an author responsible for how their software is used. It would be an evil thing if we could be prosecuted for the way someone may abuse software that we write. This could certainly have a chilling effect on free software.
I don't think any of us will be very happy if the people that can afford to release software are companies that have a full-time legal staff to fend off law suits brought on by misuse of software.
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It's been several years since I checked up on T1 and Frame Relay prices. It was hard to get an exact number since Bell Atlantic apparently couldn't find anyone able to discuss the prices with a non-business client.
Eventually I was able to get pointers to pricing info from one of the comp.dcom.telecom.* newsgroups/lists. DSL seems to be MUCH cheaper than the prices that the RBOCs are charging their business customers at present.
So what happens when they make DSL available for hundreds of dollars less per month? Wouldn't they be cannibalizing a big portion of their data services business (income-wise at least.) How much does this factor into how long it will take them to roll out DSL or other consumer data services? Can the RBOCs insist that their business customers continue paying a couple of hundred dollars per month for a fractional T1 when an equivalent DSL technology is available to consumers for $50/month?
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Obviously Gore is defending the Internet that he and Gates have been working so hard to create. (Please don't confuse this with the Internet everyone else has worked so hard to create.)
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So far it seems to be just text messaging that they're working on, and no encryption. I've been waiting for them to do encrypted messaging. Encrypted voice would be great also.
All in all, this is great news.
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I hate to reply to my own post, but I indicated sarcasm around the words "totally devestating" with pseudo-html--it showed up in the preview, but seems to have disappeared now.
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This will have no effect on piracy overall. But I expect to read about a bunch of students losing their computer equipment, getting kicked out of school in some cases, and that kind of thing. In some cases they may not even be guilty.
It's not that I condone piracy. I just hate the fact that the BSA is probably going to come down hardest on the people doing the least damage and would have a bright future otherwise. But the BSA has to justify it's existence in one way or another if they want to continue siphoning their "share" from the technology boom.
If they bust kiddies that are just being kiddies, the punishment should fit the crime. A small fine, maybe some community service. Not hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Save that for the big bad pirates are totally devastating the software industry.
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I've always liked VisualAge better than VS. The amount of coding I've done for Windows is very limited, but VisualAge (for C++, haven't really used VAJ yet) was a lot more intuitive. At least for me. At any rate, I'm happy there's a decent JDE for Linux now.
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PS> Please feel free to correct me if there are and decent java development environments for Linux that I'm not aware of.
I was thinking about the same thing. The idea feels kinda wierd...trying to picture Slashdot with a personals section. And, of course, if they did it there almost certainly would be an imbalance between the number of male and female participants.
On the positive side though, the people that I see on Slashdot tend to be a lot more interesting in general than those that I end up running into IRL. And lack of interest on my part is a big part of the reason I'm single. The other part is probably the signals I give off, such as "I'm really bored right now but I'm making an effort to pick you up anyway" when actually I'm thinking "I'd really like to get to know her better/Is there anything other than small-talk that she'd like to talk about."
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I've thought about this...why they would do it, that is. I think the idea (Microsoft's) has been that they would try to corner as many technology markets as possible. Certainly they knew they wouldn't win every battle, but they would be able to take over many and tie them to Windows, the center of their empire. Since geography isn't really an issue this could actually work. Except that their center (Windows) is beginning to rot.
Of course this leads to an interesting idea--if everything is tied to Windows and Windows dies out, where does that leave the rest of the empire? Well, at that point I think Microsoft will cease to be an empire and become just another big software company instead.
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http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/3 5/netslaves.html
Artist description: Unplugged robots who've decided to use MP3 to spread their subversive, anti-technology, anti-boosterism.
I came across these guys on mp3.com a couple months ago and found nothing of value. It appears that they've decided to move to print media since web and audio wasn't selling.
They've added some new MP3's since the time I found them, and if they're anything like what I've already heard, then clicking the above link is just a waste of time anyway. Or maybe it's just me...I didn't get it.
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It made a lot more sense back in '95 or '96 when I made the suggestion. Netscape worked pretty well for me in Linux up until Communicator 4 came out. It's been downhill from there.
I can't deny that these days Netscape would be a poor choice. And yes, of course if they had done it they would have wanted to make sure there was a copy of Netscape for Linux on the Linux disc--isn't that just common sense?
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I e-mailed Nicholas Peterly years ago with the suggestion that Netscape distribute free copies of RedHat with their browser in order to combat Microsoft's decision to bundle IE with Windows.
He wrote back immediately saying he thought it was a great idea and he'd like to use it in his column...he never did though.
I still think it's a great idea for companies to bundle free copies of Linux with their products. Obviously not every product, but there are many that it wouldn't hurt to bundle a CD or two with.
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This reminds me of one that I was forced to sign. Basically they told all the IT people they had to sign it. It was written (badly) by our legal department. It included clauses such as "employee may not at any time now or in the future use any software or hardware used by Company during period of employment without written consent of Company" and another saying we couldn't use any skills that we had learned working there. And, this was a "sign or resign" deal--I had been working there for over 2 years at the time.
One guy got upset and quit over it, the rest of us laughed at it and signed it anyway. So basically they pissed off one guy enough to make him leave and made themselves look incredibly stupid to the the IT department. If this were actually legally binding I wouldn't be able to ever use PC-DOS, Win 3.1, OS/2, Token Ring, or an AS/400 again--as if I would anyway! Of course I probably wouldn't be able to use the telephone either.
The sad thing is that they actually did have IP and trade secrets to protect. By trying to force employees into an overly broad non-compete agreement they ended up with no protection at all.
All in all it was a great place to work (I spent nearly five years there.) Just an annoying legal department and clueless upper level management. That's why I let them "force" me to sign and just laughed it off. Instead of just saying "No", I just said "Yes."
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Looks like the Linux community has helped already--they're running RedHat 6.0 (the ISP, not the gov't.) Check out the journal if you're interested.
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In Cryptomonicon the sultan of Kinakuta declared that they would not interfere with the transfer or storage of data. The idea was that that they would create a "data haven" where everything would be encrypted. They planned to use this data haven to provide information on protecting ourselves from holocausts. However they soon realized that most of their investors were pretty shady characters with a lot of money. In the process they discover a huge cache of gold and diamonds, etc. They realize that they can create their own currency (totally anonymous, digitally signed, electronic currency -- no paper trail of an sort on transactions transacted) and back up the currency with the discovered treasure.
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Obviously this is a novelty thing--not exactly news (I saw this on the Daily Show several months ago.)
:P
The unwritten but well known law is that whoever has the most powerful weapons/army owns the moon (assuming it's worth something to them.) Pay closer attention to history.
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I can relate to this also--being from that type of school. As much money as possible went towards sports--especially football--and our football team sucked (IIRC they didn't win one game my senior year.)
My friends from other schools were using Apple II's, Mac's, and PS/2's yet our school was using TRS-80's and Commodore PET's. (We finally got some PS/2's my senior year--it was a real big deal that they finally put some money into computers.)
When our Spanish class wanted to go on a field trip the administration said they couldn't afford to pay for the bus driver (our Spanish teacher offered take us without pay so that part wasn't an issue.) So the class got together and decided we'd pay for it ourselves (it was just a trip to see Man of La Mancha at a local theatre in a nearby town so it would have been pretty cheap.) This time the administration came back and said that wouldn't be fair to students in other classes that couldn't afford to do the same--yet the sports teams were given all sorts of assistance with fundraisers. Finally we decided we'd arrange to do it without any help from the school. The next day our teacher came back and said "I'm sorry but I am not allowed to participate in this in any way. We are not allowed to discuss or arrange anything in this class."
Yeah, I'm biased too.
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Translation: "the immediate virtue will be that I won't be responsible anymore when the wrong decision is made. I can just say, hey look what the computer said."
How can a mediocre administrator turn something like that down? I'd like to point out by the way that I don't think this is a "test." It's based on data the teachers and adminstrators subjectively choose to enter or leave out of the database. Including information based on rumours. And believe me, playing politics/spreading rumours/character assassinations are a huge part of being in high school.
It really annoys me that this will lessen administrators' responsibilty to be objective by laying the "decision" on the computer--which can't be blamed for anything--even though the data being entered might be subjective anyway. I'm sure this software will be worth every penny for the peace of mind that this will buy them.
This software could be a useful tool if used by smart, open-minded, objective administrators that really care. But it seems to me it's more likely to be used by mediocre administrators to cover their asses. Now, consider the administration at your (or your children's) high school. Which category do they fall into? Objective or CYA?
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I tried it and got a message from my proxy saying that host doesn't even exist... Same thing with fear.microsoft.com and doubt.microsoft.com...
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Sorry guys, I'm dumping Slashdot. Gerald is da man! C-ya!
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I'm hoping someone can clarify something for me. If I understand correctly, the slot that Pentium II/III's go in is called Slot 1. Intel patented Slot 1 so that other companies could no longer make replacement processors.
So AMD had to stick with the Socket370(?) form (which was the non-proprietary Pentium Pro socket.) Until they came out with the Athlon. AMD (or somebody) created the Slot A socket which is suprisingly(not!) similar to Slot 1 but not compatible. Main question: Is Slot A proprietary also? Or can other companies make processors for it other than AMD?
NOTE: The above is based on many guesses, assumptions, things I've read, and things I may have imagined reading. Please correct me or clarify (I'm sure there are errors.)
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All very good, but one more that wasn't mentioned. And before I mention it I'm going to mention this: I am not making any judgement about anything, just pointing out something I've noticed.
Abortion: Abortion in the US is cheap, safe, legal, and discrete. It does not require parental consent. Unless you're someone that has had many young women confide in you, then you probably have no idea just how common the practice is--even in upper/middle-class America.
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"...Randy hadn't the faintest idea what these people thought of him and what he had done, but he could sense right away that, essentially that was not the issue because even if they thought he had done something evil, the at least had a framework, a sort of procedure manual, for dealing with transgressions. To translate it into UNIX system administration terms (Randy's fundamental metaphor for just about everything), the post-modern, politically correct atheists were like people who had suddenly found themselves in charge of a big and unfathomably complex computer system (viz. society) with no documentation or instructions of any kind, and so whose only way to keep the thing running was to invent and enforce certain rules with a kind of neo-Puritanical rigor, because they were at a loss to deal with any deviations from what they saw as the norm. Whereas people who were wired into a church were like UNIX system administrators who, while they might not understand everything, at least had some documentation, some FAQs and How-tos and README files, providing some guidance on what to do when things got out of whack. They were, in other words, capable of displaying adaptability." -- Neal Stephenson, The Cryptomonicon pp585-586.
This is pretty much what I've noticed about my Christian friends (and family) as well!
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I didn't read the article, so I don't know who's brilliant plan this was. This will just lead to more labeling of kids, and in the end more violence.
I think this software will be a "success" because it will very accurately determine who will become violent. (notice I used the word "determine" rather than "predict.") Pigeonholing kids into a "violent" category makes me think of the intelligent and creative people I've met that were pigeonholed into the "slow" category, and now they've completely managed to live up to those expectations.
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